


Teenage Dream, and Other Songs We Heard Too Much Of

by sayasamax3



Category: Ookiku Furikabutte | Big Windup!
Genre: Cheesy, Genderqueer Character, Other, Teen Romance, mix tape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-19
Updated: 2013-12-19
Packaged: 2018-01-05 03:29:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1089069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sayasamax3/pseuds/sayasamax3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mizutani's That Guy With the Guitar, and Izumi is the very embarrassed Object of His Affections.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Teenage Dream, and Other Songs We Heard Too Much Of

**Author's Note:**

> Based on [all of this stuff basically.](http://klinki.tumblr.com/post/69931577592/izumi-most-certainly-did-not-spend-20-minutes) Izumi is GQ in this by the way, using they/their pronouns.

Izumi has a secret.

A secret that must never,  _ever_ , reach the light of day. 

A secret so jealously guarded that not even their nosy older brother knows of it (and said nosy brother has spent the better part of sixteen years making it his life’s business to know Izumi’s Terrible Secrets so that’s saying something).

 Yet, one day, as Izumi makes their way down the stretch of hall separating the bathroom from their bedroom, Izumi  _hears_  it. 

_And it’s bad news, baby I’m bad news…_

***

It starts like this:

“What.”

“What what?” Mizutani has the gall to look like he doesn’t understand.  Then again, Izumi has to wonder sometimes.

“The guitar.  Since when?”  Izumi asks, but stops abruptly and changes gears.  “No, no, not that but—Why now?  Why in class?  Why in  _my class?_ ”

“Oh this?”  Mizutani grins and lets his fingers slip down the strings once.  (Izumi’s stomach doesn’t flip or anything, and Hamada can  _stop_ smirking at them from behind Mizutani, thank you very much.)  “I picked it up during the off-season.  Guess I just felt like showing off a little now that I’ve got some practice under my belt!”

Practice.  Right.  The fawning classroom suffering from Cute Boy With a Guitar Syndrome had nothing to do with it, Izumi’s so sure. 

Then again, it’s Mizutani.  Sometimes he thinks he’s the hottest thing out there, and then sometimes he forgets that yeah, he is actually sort of pretty in the right light.

(The light is always right.)

“Whatever,” Izumi sighs and takes their usual seat. 

“Wanna hear a song?” Mizutani asks, turning and very nearly hitting Izumi with the headstock.  Of course, Mizutani  _would_  be sitting on Izumi’s desk. 

“No.  You’ll be fine but  _I’ll_  be embarrassed.”

“What?  Why? I swear I’m decent.”

“My confidence is  _soaring.”_

“I thought it might be,” Mizutani chirps, and there’s no way he missed the sarcasm in that,  _no way._   “I’ve been practicing this one all week!”

It takes less than a second for Izumi to recognize the song, though the sound stutters out from beneath Mizutani’s fingertips in a way that’s nowhere near as smooth as it should be.

“Banana pancakes.  Really,” Izumi can’t even begin to guess.  “Why English?”

“Sssh,  just listen ‘kay,” Mizutani says.  His fingers stumble over the strings and Mizutani pouts, then starts again from where he thinks he left off.  “It’ll be worth it.”

And then Mizutani gets to the lyrics, gets to  _singing the actual lyrics_ and Izumi’s no expert at English but they’re pretty sure it doesn’t sound like that.

“I’m gonna die,” Izumi mutters, burying their face into Mizutani’s side, which puts an immediate stop to any musical nonsense.  “You are the actual most embarrassing thing and I am going to die.”

“Aw, don’t be that way Izumi,” Oh, so  _now_ Hamada wants to chime in.  Of course.  “You were totally cool Mizutani, d’ya know any more songs?”

“oh yeah! Lemme try this one—“

Izumi doesn’t die, but it’s a near thing.

***

Class nine has turned into a circus since Mizutani started bringing in his guitar (his guitar.  To the class which is not his but Izumi’s.  Why this.) and Izumi is running on a serious midday nap deficit because of it. 

Mostly because Mizutani always sits on their desk.  Izumi could sleep through anything if there wasn’t 57kg of baseball player and roughly a meter of guitar on their desk.  Even then it’s really just the guitar that’s a problem.  Izumi sleeps on Mizutani all the time, after all.

Well.  Izumi supposes they could always relocate to class seven if they wanted some peace and quiet. 

But.

No.

Izumi will just fiddle with their phone under the desk instead and wait it out.

(If their finger happens to wander over a recording app and turns it on—well.  They  _are_  sleep-deprived.  Accidents happen.)

***

“I got something for you,” Mizutani says, and so excited is he that he doesn’t even stop talking when he leans over to place a light peck on Izumi’s cheek, so the kiss is less a kiss and more just lips moving against their skin (oh).

“Why?” Izumi asks, and wonders if it’s even possible for them to forget something that  _Mizutani_  remembers.  But then stranger things have happened, and Izumi  _has_  been tired. 

“No reason, I just wanted to,” and oh god, Mizutani is  _blushing_.  If Mizutani’s blushing, then Izumi might actually really die this time.  “Here.”

Izumi just stares at the thing Mizutani holds out for a long, long time. 

“Is that.  Is that what I think it is?” Izumi asks, sort of hoping it’s not (but sort of hoping it is). 

“It’s a mixtape,” Mizutani says, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand.  “It’s all your—well, our, kinda—favorite songs?  I just wanted to, I guess.”

The blushing and the embarrassed gestures and the nervousness and ridiculous sincerity—

_‘Total K.O.’_

***

Izumi swears never to listen to it.  Mizutani probably put a lot of time and effort into it because he’s a total dork that makes  _mix tapes_  of all the shitty-great music they like but Izumi will honestly die if they listen to it so it just.  Stays there.  For a whole three days it stays there on the nightstand, right next to Izumi’s CD player, collecting dust. 

But then Mizutani asks if Izumi’s listened to it yet and they answer  _nooope_ and Izumi can’t remember the last time Mizutani’s kicked puppy look actually got to them. 

So whatever, if Mizutani wants to kill them with second-hand embarrassment, so be it.  Izumi gets comfortable on their bed, gathers some homework around and figures they might dull the impact with a little math.

It doesn’t work. 

_And it’s bad news, baby I’m bad news…_

First, Izumi pushes  _everything_  off their bed with one strong sweep of their arm.  The heavy textbooks and their not-so-heavy notes make satisfying sounds, crashes and angry flutters and hard thumps.  And Izumi just stares at the chaos for a while, stares until the next song starts.  Then Izumi grabs a pillow tries to strangle it.  With their arms.  Right up against their chest.  The next song makes them fall over, just list to the side and then fall over onto the mattress, and the next makes them roll on to their stomach, until by the last one Izumi has nearly smothered themselves against the mattress.

And then Izumi  _screams_  because Mizutani really  _is_  the most embarrassing person on the planet but he clearly put so,  _so_ much work into this even though it’s still pretty awful but it’s so sweet and damn it,  _damn it_ , Izumi loves  _this_ guy.  This guy and his stupid guitar that he only barely knows how to play.

Izumi really  _can’t_  tell Mizutani they’ve listened to it. 

***

Now the whole awful debacle has come back full-circle.  Not listening to the mixtape (or at least, not admitting to it) has had Dire Consequences.

Which is to say, Mizutani  _sulks._

He’s not actually a sulking type—or at least, not the type to sulk for long.  There’s always something, some other shiny toy or person, that can catch his interest long enough to stop him from falling into a rut. 

But it’s like the guitar  _amplifies_  his ability to sulk because for over a week now Mizutani has been playing increasingly cheesy-but-heartfelt break-up songs, which would be funny and pitiable if it weren’t also vaguely alarming. 

He also makes Faces a lot and sits on  _Hamada’s_  desk instead of Izumi’s which just really drives home the whole message of  _I really put my heart into something for you and I’m sad you won’t listen to it_.

Something must be done, so Izumi invites Mizutani over because it’s been a while and maybe Izumi will stumble upon something they can do to make him stop being so mopey.   

This is where the problem lies, because Mizutani is used to being in Izumi’s room, feels at home in Izumi’s room, feels at home  _touching things in Izumi’s room_  and as a general rule Izumi has given their permission for all of that.

The problem is that Mizutani touches things, very specific things when Izumi leaves to use the restroom, and now Izumi can hear the sounds of the mixtape through their bedroom door and they do not not  _not_  want to go in there.  Izumi will die, Izumi will absolutely  _die_  and Mizutani will stand there and grin about it like this is some kinda of  _game_ : Mizutani, in the bedroom, with a mixtape and copious amounts of second-hand embarrassment. 

Maybe Izumi should write that down for whoever finds their body.

“Hey Izumi!  You coming back in any time soon?  I can see your shadow under the door you know!”

 “Nope _,”_ Izumi replies, and very decidedly sits down right there outside their own door.  Mizutani can climb out the window if he wants to escape, but Izumi’s not going in an Mizutani is not coming out of that door. 

“What?  C’mon Izumi why not?”

_Because the universe will probably explode if two people as embarrassing as us are in the same room._

“Izumi?” Mizutani’s voice sounds closer now, he’s probably moved toward the door. 

“Hey, Izumi,” Oh god and now he’s using that  _sincere_  voice of his, all heart-bleeding honesty and sentiment.  “Even if you thought it was crap, I’m still really happy you listened to it.  Thanks.”

So Izumi stands.  Izumi stands and opens the door and lets Mizutani’s big stupid perfect grin fill their vision and leave warm impressions on their cheeks.

Maybe, Izumi thinks, survival is possible after all.   


End file.
